Our life in an English town,naughty chickens,vintage things,pretty things and shabby things...

Monday, 3 December 2012

49 and a half shades of grey

Before you ask....nope this isn't about THAT shade of Grey!

It's not very exciting stuff I'm afraid, what we've been up to really, something and nothing.
I'd love to tell you we'd won the lottery and had buggered off to see the Grand Canyon in a convertible dining on nothing but sticky buns but alas, it's just been the normal boring stuff. Although, saying that....

Stinky littlest boy joined the Royal Air Force.He looks soooo grown up in his uniform, it's quite scary.

We went away 'oop North' and got to see the seaside on a stunningly beautiful but chillllllllly day where Bella unfortunately got poked in the eye with a stick (she's ok by the way) and Red got wooshed over by a big wave. We've also been doing a spot of decorating which has taken FOREVER but for no reason other than I can't be bothered with it all... oh and lack of funds to do it all in one go.Yep it's still not quite finished but I'll show you some sneaky peeks..

Cyril..who smells like old socks. Nice.

One job always ends up turning into 5 million more in this house,which I may have said already before.
The
simple task of decorating the lounge, just a
lick of paint so we thought but bigger cupboards had to be made either
side of the fireplace and that in turn made the plaster fall off...you
know how it goes in old houses..urgh.
One. Big. Money. Pit.
I must admit I ended up sneaking off and making cups of tea or getting sidetracked by a magazine instead of getting on with stuff like the hideous chore of sanding.

I'm turning into a right lazy tart in my old age.

paint;F&B Downpipe, Pavillion gray

Our 10 year old sofa had split at the seams and was becoming more than a bit uncomfortable, It was embarrassingly bad. Unable to afford the feather filled sofa of our dreams just yet, a trip to the 'Dodgy Furniture Store' surprisingly came up trumps with a simple grey velvet number (the never ending sale price and interest free credit for 400 years not surprisingly swung it). The evil twins Olive and Flo decided to pee on the our other one too, right through all the scatter cushions, seat cushions and base, not once but twice.

Library sign from 3potato4, a pressie from my little brother.

They also did it on me when I was asleep in bed.Yuk! Now that was a seriously eeeeeevil thing to do at 3am I can tell you! I believe it was my punishment for having them spayed and keeping them holed up at home with a litter tray. It made the 'requiring of a new sofa' decision much easier though.
The not-so-little kitty gits will be banished from the lounge unsupervised from now on though.Grrrr.

Anyway, I've done a complete turn around in my ideas for this room, I'm not sure whether it works or not but we'll see. After about 10 pots of tester paint we decided to go with the warm grey walls that stinky George's room was painted with. It was just right with the grey sofa and some charcoal roman blinds which will eventually be made from some bargain £25 linen-look curtains purchased from Ikea.(the shutters I long for are also on hold due to lack of funds).

shop letter via ebay from France

For someone that suffers with bouts of depression like me, it could be a dangerous step to go grey all the way, not to worry though, there's a bit of frivolous nonsense too..like Cyril, the stuffed finch, a large French metal shop letter, a painted pigeon hole cupboard and some kitsch 60s stuff thrown in for good measure.

I was amazed to read in Homes and Antiques last month about vintage taxidermy as I had purchased the exact same butterfly on the cover and 'Cyril' only days before its publication. Fancy that hey?!

We bought some picture frames too from Ikea, a whole bunch of them half price for £4 each and filled them with some lovely butterfly prints from the wonderful emporium named Rockett St.George (one of my very favourite online haunts)

The lacy-but-industrial-looking rusty metal lampshade came from there too. It makes a lovely pattern around the room when you use the right kind of lightbulb!

I usually hate any sort of change, become a grumpy mare and have sleepless nights worrying if it looks right or not but this time it was nice to go for something a bit trendier or colours I like but wouldn't normally consider. Luckily at this time of year you get lots of discounts, free postage and offers to tempt you, so lots was done quite cheaply.

Wooden stag Rocket&Rye, they sent the lovely snowflakes in my parcel as a pressie!

It's all looking appropriately wintery and festive now that we've begun 'Christmassing' up the house too.
One thing I do like is that by having plainer basic stuff, we can ring the seasonal changes with cushions
( yay for CUSHIONS!!!)

14 comments:

Your room looks gorgeous. I love the grey and the pops of yellow really lift it. I know what you mean about old houses ... our 220 year old house has been a pit of humungous proportions that we are desperately trying to claw our way out of!! M x

Thankyou :) It is scary what you can spend on old houses, we came from a brand new house to this one which hadn't been touched in about 70+ years. I think we ran out of money to finish the big jobs in about 2006!

ooh very retro, Grey is one of my favourite colours, however I tend to wear it. Never thought of it for decor. DIY is definitely like a snowball effect in our old cottage.My Dad was called Cyril. love that name, (he didnt smell of old socks though!) I cant believe you have your Christmas tree up already, or am I mistaken. louise

hi Louise,yep its up but not properly decorated, its only a little one, I've been banned from putting the big one up! (I normally put it up the second week in December but its all down on new years day)Glad to hear your dad didn't smell of old socks..its not a good thing!!!

I have made the OH bite the bullet and commit to painting our bedroom between Christmas and New Year. I wanted a grey or putty colour, but the greys I have looked at before have looked ok as a tester square and lilac as a full wall....but yours is perfect. Off to get a tester of Pavillion grey.

We had just the same problem Jo..it all looked too blue or too lilac. Pavillion grey was perfect. If you have a Homebase that does the Dulux paint mixing and they have a scanner, they'll scan the F&B paint chart and mix it up for you for half the price.We've found them pretty much identical in the past, but I have to say F&B is definitely the better quality paint!

I love your new room! Would love a closer look through your books...We redecorated almost the whole house this summer, it was hard work but has made so much of a difference, i actually love our home now.xx

Thankyou,thankyou,thankyou for being so lovely as to leave a message!..I try to reply to your messages on here,so check back if you dont hear from me..but please dont be offended if I dont get time to respond, each one is totally appreciated. They make my day. x